“I’m a huge Smiths fan and have been planning a tribute for a few years now. Timing just never seemed right. Then late last year, for several weeks, everywhere I went, I heard The Smiths playing… at the mall, at restaurants, on my car radio. It was weird… I felt like the universe was telling me now was the time. I started reaching-out to artists in November and the response was overwhelmingly positive. This is going to be one of the best tributes we’ve ever produced.” – Joe Spadaro, American Laundromat Records

For the album cover, American Laundromat Records secured rights to use a Sandie Shaw photograph and tapped rock-poster designer Lonny Unitus (Apples In Stereo, The Decemberists, Willie Nelson) to design the cover art and eco-wallet packaging. Sandie Shaw (aka Sandra Goodrich) is an English Pop-Singer, who was one of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s. Both Morrissey and Johnny Marr of The Smiths were “two incurable Sandie Shaw fans” and reportedly wrote her a letter back in 1983 stating so. In April of 1984, Shaw recorded a version of The Smiths Hand in Glove (their first single) which peaked just inside the UK Top 30. She later collaborated with the band and has covered songs by both The Smiths and Morrissey.

“I wanted to do something interesting for the cover art. Most importantly, I wanted it to look like a Smiths album. Beyond that though, I thought the photograph we used needed to be something that had deeper meaning. Once I learned of the Sandie Shaw connection, I sourced hundreds of old photographs and finally found the one of Sandie lying in the leaves in that fantastic pea coat. I thought it was perfect immediately. Not only because the tribute will be an Autumn release, but because Sandie’s expression and the whole feel of the photo, in my opinion, is reminiscent of The Smiths music. It was a lucky find, and Ms. Shaw has been very gracious in allowing us to use it.” – Joe Spadaro, American Laundromat Records